Better late than never
by Serthrek871
Summary: Izuku and Mina are Pro heroes now, meeting once more after a while. Will new feelings be uncovered and explored? Or will they stay buried and die?


Mina looked sourly over her brightly colored drink at the clothes that appeared to be floating above the seat positioned across from her and the obnoxiously chipper voice telling her to be happier.

"How are you so good at holding your alcohol, Toru? You've had more than me, but I feel like I'm already hung over…" groaned Mina.

Toru shrugged an invisible shoulder, and said, "I've been drinking since before it was legal. Whenever mom would piss me off, I'd go sneak some of her favorite wine, and she'd get irritated that she was drinking so much and would swear it off for a month. She usually lasted about three days before my little brother would literally drive her to drink."

Mina chuckled in a pained sort of way. Head down on the table, looking up at her mischievous friend, she watched the stealth heroine down another glass of whatever amber liquid she'd ordered this time.

"So why did you break up with this one? I thought you said he was a cool guy?" questioned the invisible heroine.

"It turns out he thought that I'd be desperate for a man because of my appearance and hoped I'd jump on his dick when beckoned. I said no, he got angry and now he's in the hospital with minor acid burns." Mina sighed.

Toru looked shocked. "Didn't he know that you're Pinky?"

Mina looked at her sharply, to silence her friend.

Mina would have sworn at that moment that Toru rolled her eyes. "Oh, c'mon. One look at you and it's hard not to tell. You don't exactly blend into the crowd, hon."

At this Mina rolled her eyes of black and gold. "The same goes for you," she chuckled, "when you have clothes on at least."

Toru giggled and toasted Mina with her soon to be empty drink.

Mina sighed and propped her head up with her hand. "I think he was too self absorbed to even connect the dots. He was sweet and charming till I said no, and then he got aggressive." Mina sighed again, plopping her head onto the table. "Why can't i find any good guys?"

Toru shook her head slowly, evident only from her hair clip swaying slowly, until she cocks her head in Mina's direction.

"Have you thought about dating any of the guys from 1-A?"

Mina jolted up, lilac blush flaring across her face.

Toru sat forward intently, practically bouncing with excitement, "Oh! You have to tell me now! Who is it?!"

"I, ah… ummm, oh look I'm getting a call!" cried Mina, desperately thankful that she was saved by the bell. Or phone in this case. She pulled her phone out of her jacket pocket to check and see who was calling her, only for her blush to deepen and spread farther over her face.

 _*Receiving call: Izuku Midoriya*_

Of course… The _one guy_ that she actually _has_ thought about dating from their old class happens to call at the _exact_ moment Toru questions her about potential dating material from their old class. No deities up above hate her. Not at all… Minas thoughts wandered as the phone rang. She had always admired the green haired hero. Out of all the people in class 1-A, Izuku was by far the most heroic. The word "hero" was practically coded onto his DNA. Countless times he had thrown himself into danger. He'd broken himself to make sure others stayed safe. He was the single most selfless person she'd ever met. He stuck his nose into whatever place he could help. Whether or not his help was desired. His fight with Todoroki was a perfect example.

All of Class 1-A knew that Todoroki refused to use the fire half of his quirk. No one knew for sure why, but Momo speculated in the locker rooms one day that it was because of his father. Apparently, Momo had met him at a party her parents had been hosting. Despite his quirk, he was a cold and unsympathetic man, rumored to be quick to anger when things didn't go his way.

Growing up with a man like that couldn't be simple, and could easily lead to feelings of hatred and resentment.

Izuku must have figured everything out himself. During their fight in the first year sports festival, he had started yelling at Todoroki. No one but the two of them and the judges could make out what was said between the two. But whatever it was, it spurred Todoroki to do something no one else could do. Todoroki had used his fire side to win him the match. Izuku lost because he was incapable of leaving someone in pain to fend for themselves.

Another time he had risen above and beyond was during their summer training camp. As soon as they had come under attack he had rushed off to find the angry little boy that had hit him in the family jewels upon meeting for the first time. His arms had been shattered in his fight with Muscular. Despite these grave and extremely painful injuries he had carried Kouta on his back to safety. Pausing only long enough to drop him off before rushing off to help their classmates.

She had toyed with the idea of asking him out once or twice, but the signs Uraraka had been giving off stayed her hand. She was pretty sure that Uraraka had a major crush on the resident nerd of Class 1-A. She was proven right shortly before the end of their last year at UA.

They had been going out for about a year and a half when things went to hell. After they split up, Mina had considered her desire to ask Izuku out again, but had always held off. Either she felt it was too soon after their break up, or she felt like she'd be betraying Uraraka.

"So it's Midoriya you've thought about, eh?" purred Toru.

The words of the invisible heroine jerked the acid user from her thoughts and memories.

She hurried to answer before the closing bars of her ringtone faded completely.

"H-hello?" she coughed. Hoping that she sounded semi-normal.

"Hi Mina! I was wondering if it'd be ok to stop by your place sometime this week? Tsuyu gave me something to pass onto you. She said that she would have given it to you herself, but the preparations are taking up almost all of her time. So she asked if I could give it to you. What days would work best with your schedule?" Izuku inquired politely.

Mina's breath hitched for a moment, before she started discussing what times she was free and clear during the next week. She was being silly. He was coming to deliver something, not to hang out and catch up. Nothing would come of this.

"So! Why do you think that this'll be a dead end for you?"

Mina spared a moment to curse Toru and her observational skills before turning to aforementioned heroine, and asking, "What do you mean, Toru?"

"You look like someone just kicked a kitten right in front of you," Toru stated flatly. "What's the deal, girl?"

Mina sighed for what felt like the millionth time that night, and stated, "I might be interested in him, but I doubt he's interested in me. I've never seen him show any romantic interest in anyone other than Uraraka. Besides, he's just coming to drop something off apparently."

Toru smirked in a very self satisfied way. Mina didn't have the advantaged that Toru did. She had seen Midoriya sneaking looks at the pink skinned woman when he thought no one was watching after their dance sessions had started.

"Mina, if Izuku has absolutely no interest in you at all, then he's a lot dumber than I've ever observed. I think that is you never try to see if there's more hiding under the surface, then you'll never find what you want. And I'm positive that if you go after what you want, then the results will surprise you."

"You mean how you and Sato got together? Cause _I_ sure didn't see that coming!" giggled Mina.

The two pros laughed and continued their girls night out. But Mina took Toru's words to heart, and resolved to see what could be done when she next saw Izuku.

Izuku grunted as he landed on the roof of his friend Mina's apartment building. He grinned as he walked towards the roof door. He was glad he had called Mina to let her know that he was going to be stopping by during his patrol. She had left a broom propped in the door to allow him easy access to the stairwell. It'd be much quicker this way. He wanted to give Tsuyu's message and hurry on his way to finish his patrol. He jogged down the stairs, counting the floors as he grinned. Mina would be absolutely thrilled by what Kirishima and Tsuyu wanted her to do for them.

Izuku paused on the landing above her floor to calm himself down. Anytime he came into contact with the vibrantly skinned beauty his heart would beat faster and his breathing sped up. Ever since Mina had taught him how to dance, the boy had developed a crush on the adorable pink ball of energy. He remembered how the two heroes in training had gotten to know each other. Izuku had come to admire her perpetual cheer and optimism. Her inability to let someone get hurt when there was something that she could do. Her daring and bravery that he often wished he could develop as easily as the heroine in training did.

He shook himself out of his brief reverie, and gripped the handle of the door and let himself into hallway where he could give Mina the letter.

As he neared her door he slowed in confusion. He could hear Mina laughing loudly and uproariously, almost uncontrollably.

The hero Deku knocked hesitantly on the pink womans door. He knew that Mina had a vibrant and mischievous sense of humor. He wasn't sure that he wanted to know what amused her so much that he could hear her from the stairwell at the end of the hall from her apartment room.

Deku managed to catch her say something along the lines of, "Come in, I can't get up right now."

He pushed the door open and made his way into the main living space, only to see Mina half hanging off her chair, and drawing in big gulps of air as she tried to get ahold of herself. One look at Izuku's face set her off again, however.

In response to his utterly confused expression she pointed a shaking finger at her computer screen and tipped out of the chair so that Izuku could sit and have a good look at what Mina had been reading.

Izuku perused the written essay, and paled further and further the more he read.

It had been several years since he had managed to get rid of his stutter in normal conversation, but at this moment in time it came back full force.

"W-wh-what is th-this?!" Izuku cried in shock and horror.

"Yaoi fanfiction about you and Bakugo getting it on!"

Izuku lost all ability to speak coherently. Even thinking was fairly difficult at that moment. Him and Bakugo?! Why? Who would even think that he was gay?! Uraraka had been his girlfriend for several months before she moved to America and they had drifted apart. The tabloids had blown up, engaging in virtual death matches to get interviews with the super powered couple. I had gotten even worse when the news that the two had broken up got out to the vultures masquerading as reporters. Those first few weeks after the break up had been rough, both on him and the rest of his friends that had been Class 1-A. They had all been harrassed by the media in hopes of getting even a part of the story. Izuku was incredibly grateful then that they had all kept tight lipped about it. Those who knew anything anyway. Which the pink woman in front of him had.

She was good friends with Uraraka, and had been nothing but supportive to the two courting heros, and when things had gone south had stood up for them to the media. That had not made her popular with the press for the few weeks it took for things to blow over. Izuku felt a surge of warmth for the bouncy woman who cared so deeply for her friends, and did whatever she could to keep them safe and happy. She embodied what he believed a true hero to be. Selfless, and eager to reassure those in danger with her trademark grin and a helping hand. She was special.

"I'm sorry, could you repeat that last bit? I caught the rest of your muttering, but the last few sentences got away from me." Ashido asked with a smirk and a glint in her eye.

Izuku clapped a hand to his mouth so hard it created a gust of wind in the apartment, as his eyes widened to the size of saucers. His face flushing scarlet as all the absent blood rushed back into his face.

"Ooooo, whatever it was it must have been embarrassing, huh, Midoriya?"

Izuku shook his head frantically, hand still attached firmly to his mouth so as not to let slip anything else he'd rather not let slip.

Izuku took his hand away from his mouth when he was sure it wouldn't go running off without him again, and asked the still grinning Mina, "W- How did you f-find this? Why would someone write fanfiction about real p-people?"

Izuku's relationship with Bakugo had improved since High school. Bakugo wasn't openly hostile towards him, and had even apologized for how he'd behaved in his own thankfully unique way after a particularly nasty team fight against an electric quirk user in a hijacked power station.

Ashido shrugged, a hint of her amusement still etched across her smiling face. "I dunno, dude. I guess some people just like yaoi even when the focus is an actual person that isn't even close to gay."

Somehow Mina neglected to mention that she had found it while doing an Internet search on the Hero Deku, and promptly saved it to tease the easily embarrassed man with when she next saw him.

One of Mina's favorite things to do was to do internet searches of her friends, to see how they were faring on the fickle seas of media favor. She would never admit it, but the green haired hero in front of her was the focus of these searches far more often than any of the other former members of Class 1-A.

Izuku shook himself, as much to pull himself back on track as to clear his head of the horrifying images that had been painted on the page before him.

After banishing them to the back of his mind to be revisited in nightmare, he smiled softly and handed the note he had pulled out of his belt to the still amused woman. She took it, and started to read Tsuyu's loopy handwriting. After a moment her amused look dropped and shock replaced it on her expressive face. She read it once, read it again, glanced up at izuku sharply and reread it a third time. All the while Izuku's face slowly split into a delighted grin.

"What about Ochako?! Wasn't she going to do it?" Mina asked, bouncing in place, hardly able to believe what she had read.

"Unfortunately she can't make it back from the US in time. Something about a rescue operation complication. She won't be free till a week after the wedding." Izuku was rather sad he wouldn't be able to see Ochako again at the wedding. He missed her. Despite them growing apart romantically, she was still his friend, and he liked making sure his friends were well taken care of. Last time they had spoken she seemed happy, but she was good at faking her feelings to keep those close to her from worrying. It was a bad habit she had, and he had hoped to assess how she was really doing face to face, as it was harder for her to dissemble to his face than over the phone.

His thoughts were cut off as the excitable girl grabbed him off the chair and pulled him into a wiggling hug. Despite being really athletic, Mina was deceptively strong. She had been underestimated by many enemies to their pain and defeat. Letting go she started whirling around her apartment in a whirlwind of excitement and joy, shouting, "I GET TO BE THE MAID OF HONOR! WOOHOO!"

After several minutes of joy filled celebration, she plopped down onto the sofa facing the computer chair that Izuku was currently occupying.

"Can you believe that Tsuyu and Kirishima are finally getting married? I honestly thought that you and Ochako would have gotten married first. Sorry things didn't work out by the way. You two seemed so happy. I was shocked when I heard you two had split." A moment of silence passed between the two pro heros. "Why did you two split up anyway? Not to pry but Ochako never would give me a straight answer. If you don't feel comfortable, I totally understand and we drop it right now."

Izuku shook his head in irritation. Not at Ashido, but at the circumstances that had divided him and the gravity heroine. He started to recount how being so far apart with such drastic differences in time zone and sleep schedules had put a dangerous strain on their relationship. But then she had heard about how some obsessive fangirl had managed to break into Izuku's apartment naked and had tried to get him to sleep with her. Of course he had refused, but this and several similar events brought back all of Ochako's high school insecurities, and their relationship had broken as a result of the suspicion and inability to talk face to face.

At least they had gotten through the awkwardness relatively well, and were on friendly terms again. Even if their friendship wasn't the same as it had once been.

Izuku slumped in his seat slightly as he finished recounting what had passed to the friend who had defended them without even knowing the full story. Izuku looked at the clock hanging to the right of him, and jolted in surprise. He had been sitting and talking with Mina for over an hour! He had only meant to stay for a maximum of twenty minutes! He had to finish his patrol! He got up and bowed low to the acid heroine and apologized for taking up so much time on her day off talking about his past problems. He hurried over to the door, but paused with his hand on the doorknob when Mina called out to him.

"Hey Midori! I need to leave a review here. Is there anything I should say to the author? Like you secretly had a crush on Todoroki or something?" she teased in a tone that showed she wasn't at all serious. "Or that you had a crush on someone other than Uraraka in 1-A?" Mina continued, apparently still joking.

Izuku's hand tightened on the door knob, almost crushing the poor hunk of metal. He in fact did have a crush on someone from class 1-A that he had never mentioned to anyone. But did he have the courage to tell the vibrant woman in front of him? Probably not directly…

"I-I c-can give you a h-hint…" he practically whispered, his stutter coming back with a vengeance.

Mina's eyes widened slightly, but she grinned that happy grin she was famous for and exclaimed while winking, "Sure! I think I can handle it."

"W-well, s-s-s-she… ummm. S-sh-she has, uh h-has…"

Mina giggled at the adorable display of one of the top ten heros of Japan stuttering and tripping over his words trying to tell who he liked.

Like Mina's giggle was the spark that caught the tinder on fire he got his sentence out at breakneck speed.

" _She has pink skin, ok thanks Mina, I'll see you later, Goodbye!"_

Izuku was already out the door and heading up the stairs by the time his sentence registered in the woman's head. Her eyes flew wide, and before conscious thought could catch up she hurled herself after the green clad hero.

She burst out onto the roof, but Izuku was already a spec in the distance rapidly getting smaller.

She shuffled back into her apartment, totally shocked by what he had said. Had she thought that he felt that way about her?

Absolutely not.

Would she mind going out with him?

 _Hell no!_

Since their time at UA he had filled into his suit better, so his rock hard muscles were easier to see and appreciate, even though his suit wasn't spandex or skin tight. Even aside from his delicious physique was the man inside. She didn't think she had ever met a kinder, humbler hero in her whole career. A man that was dedicated to helping anyone and everyone, even if they might not deserve it. One that literally didn't care about the wealth that could be amassed by the upper ranked heroes, and even seemed uncomfortable in the spotlight to this day. Any time he showed up to a scene and was cornered by the media after it was over, he gave credit to those that had helped him, even trying to give them more credit than himself. Thus he was really popular with any heroes he crossed paths with, along with the civilians he fought so hard to protect.

Ashido's wide grin reflected weakly off of her strong white teeth. She knew what she was going to do. She reached down and picked up her cell phone from off the floor and dialed a number.

Izuku was kinda freaking out. He had actually said how he had had a crush on Mina in High School. Maybe even still did.

He was worried specifically because he hadn't heard a peep from Mina that night or during the immediately following weekend.

He walked into the offices that he had inherited after Sir Nighteye's death.

His secretary waved to him as soon she saw him.

"Deku! Someone called Friday afternoon and scheduled a lunch appointment with you."

Izuku raised an eyebrow. Usually the only people who ate lunch with the frizzy haired hero was Iida, or Todoroki, when their conflicting schedules matched up.

"What's the persons name?

"Someone calling herself the Alien Queen. I didn't recognize the name, so i did some research, but couldn't find any heroes that go by that name. Do you know this person, Deku?"

Izuku stiffened like he had received an electrical shock and nodded spastically. Mina wanted to have lunch with him? Did she want to talk to him about what he had said? She was probably going to let him down easy…

And of course the secretary didn't recognize the name. Mina went by Pinky ever since Midnight shot down Alien Queen as Mina's hero name.

"Alien Queen said that she wanted to discuss with you the details of your impending relationship with a certain heroine that you've liked since your time at UA." The secretary smiled warmly at who she thought was the best boss in the world. "Congratulations, sir. I'm very happy for you."

Izuku barely caught her words over the roaring of blood in his ears as what felt like all the blood in his body rushed to his face.

Mina wanted to date him?! Holy crap! Was this a dream?!

 _*SMACK*_

Nope. Not a dream. Hopefully he wouldn't make a fool of himself at lunch, he thought as his stomach started lurching nervously. Even as that was happening a wide grin broke over his features. He was glad he had stayed so long at Mina's yesterday. He'd make sure that this relationship would work out this time.


End file.
